The Friendly Club!
The St George Chess Club prides itself on a diverse membership with a range of chess abilities. We foster a social atmosphere for players of all ages and abilities.
The club runs regular internal club competitions and participates in interclub tournaments. More information about the activities can be found from the calendar.
Club Games: 7:30pm Tuesday nights, Prince Edward Rooms, St George Leagues Club, 124 Princes Highway, Kogarah NSW
News
2025 St George Club Championships welcomes 70 players
Updates: Charles’ newsletter for Round 1 has been sent to all participants and can also be downloaded here. Playable versions of all but two Division 7 Round 1 games are now up on the Results page.
The 2025 Club Champs started last Tuesday, March 4, with seven divisions of ten players. A round-robin affair of nine rounds, each game provides the players with 90 minutes each, and 30 seconds increment per move. The results and all pairings can now be accessed on the Results page. Other tournament details can be found here.
As in most previous years, our Club Captain, Charles Zworestine, is writing up a newsletter for each round, with comments on each and every game! And we will also be publishing the details of each game, as we did for the first time in the 2023 Club Champs database. This requires us to take photos of both players’ scoresheets at the end of the game. Please do not leave without allowing myself (Geoff Hyde) or Charles to get these copies. If you routinely enter your moves into any chess engine after the game (highly recommended!), and can send Charles and myself a PGN version of your game, that would be much appreciated. When you enter your game using the Analysis option at Chess.com, for example, it automatically generates a PGN read-out of the game once you click on the Share button. At Lichess, a PGN read-out appears automatically under the Analysis Board as you enter your moves. Please advise us on the night if you can share the PGN with us, and get the PGN to us by the Friday night after the game. Email: charles@ozemail.com.au and geoffjhyde@gmail.com.
A link to Charles’ newsletter, and the games, will be posted at the top of this article as soon as they are out.
John-Stuart Plant’s Allegro win makes it two-in-a row!
Spurred on by a shock loss in Round 1, John-Stuart Plant won all his remaining 8 games to take out the 2025 Club Allegro tournament. This follows on from his win in our most recent tournament, the Club Lightning. Coming second were Mario Falchoni and Geoff Barker on 7, with Ted Power and Rick Lopis next on 6.5. Fifty four players took part in this nine-round Swiss, with a time control of 10 minutes per player and 5 seconds increment per move.
The following players had a performance rating at least 150 points above the actual rating. The performance ratings were calculated using the tool on this page, using the Iterate until Covergence option. The full list can be seen here. Ghassan Beydoun (392); Geoff Barker (381); Samuel Slingo (371); Ralph Shaw (364); William Liu (310); Emmanuel Vardakis (302); Ralph Mitchell (299); Ashton Li (295); Boris Paceskoski (222); Ted Power (195); Nikola Vujasin (164).
Upcoming Events at St George & elsewhere
City of Sydney Blitz 1.30 pm March 16 Burwood
Turn up at the congenial rooms of the Sydney Academy of Chess, Burwood, March 16, for 11 rounds of 3+2 Blitz. The tournament is ACF and FIDE-rated. As with all NSWCA events you must register at least the day before the tournament – no registrations are accepted on the day. If you register by March 12, you get a decent discount on the entry fee.
Full details here and register on this page.
The UNSW Open Weekender debut event! March 21-23
The upsurge in the popularity of chess is being translated into lots of new offerings for NSW chess fans. Brendan Anderson, very well-known to many at St George, is now very active with the UNSW Chess Club and has initiated a 3-day event. It takes advantage of a week’s break in the UNSW student year, but will also appeal to those of us who can find ourselves free for the first day of the tournament, Friday March 21. The tournament is seven rounds of 60+30 classical chess, both ACF and FIDE-rated.
Full details here and register on this page.